Asserting Native Resilience

Indigenous nations are on the frontline of the climate crisis of the twenty-first century. With cultures and economies among the most vulnerable to climate-related catastrophes, Native peoples are developing responses to climate change that serve as a model for Native and non-Native communities alike.

Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest and Indigenous peoples around the Pacific Rim have already been deeply affected by droughts, flooding, reduced glaciers and snowmelts, seasonal shifts in winds and storms, and the northward shifting of species on the land and in the ocean. Having survived the historical and ecological wounds inflicted by colonization, industrialization, and urbanization, Indigenous peoples are using tools of resilience that have enabled them to respond to sudden environmental changes. They are creating defenses to harden their communities, mitigate losses, and adapt where possible.

Asserting Native Resilience presents a rich variety of perspectives on Indigenous responses to the climate crisis, reflecting the voices of more than twenty contributors, including tribal leaders, Native and non-Native scientists, scholars, and activists from the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Alaska, and Aotearoa / New Zealand. Also included is a resource directory of Indigenous governments, NGOs, and communities that are researching and responding to climate change and a community organizing booklet for use by Northwest tribes.

An invaluable addition to the literature on climate change, Asserting Native Resilience will be useful for students of environmental studies, Native studies, geography, and rural sociology, and will serve as an important reference for Indigenous leaders, tribal members, and environmental agency staff.

FOREWORD: LOOKING AHEAD

As a lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest and the
descendent of people who have lived here for thousands
of years, I can tell you many things about the land, the
water, and the life that has been sustained here for a...

INTRODUCTION

Indigenous nations are on the frontline of the climate
crisis, around the continent and the world. Native
peoples are the first to experience climate change, and
the peoples who feel it the deepest, with economies and
cultures that are the most vulnerable to climate-related...

PART I. CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Indigenous peoples, the First Nations of our
planet, are the first victims of climate change, but
are also the first to grasp and explain the profound
meanings of a changing climate. Indigenous
voices draw on many millennia of experience with the...

LAND GRAB ON A GLOBAL SCALE

Among the English-speaking settler societies—U.S.,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand—an irrational but
powerful myth still prevails. It drove “manifest destiny”
and is still alive and well, if usually unconscious...

THE ANCHORAGE DECLARATION

On April 20–24, 2009, Indigenous representatives from
the Arctic, North America, Asia, Pacific, Latin America,
Africa, [the] Caribbean, and Russia met in Anchorage,
Alaska, for the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on
Climate Change. We thank the Ahtna and the Dena’ina...

THE MYSTIC LAKE DECLARATION

As community members, youth and elders, spiritual
and traditional leaders, Native organizations and supporters
of our Indigenous Nations, we have gathered on
November 18–21, 2009, at Mystic Lake in the traditional
homelands of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota...

KEY NORTH AMERICAN INDIGENOUS CONCERNS

ALASKA: TESTIMONY FROM THE FRONT LINES

Editors’ note: This chapter combines testimony by Mike
Williams (Yupiaq) before a U.S. House of Representatives
Select Committee on Energy Independence and
Global Warming hearing on Energy and Global...

SHARING ONE SKIN

I am from the Okanagan, a part of British Columbia
that is very dry and hot. Around my birthplace are two
rocky mountain ranges: the Cascades on one side and
the Selkirks on the other. The main river that flows...

WHERE WORDS TOUCH THE EARTH

Recently we were given the great opportunity to work
with the Where Words Touch the Earth project, coordinated
by Dr. David Adamec of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA). In spring 2009,
NASA approached six tribal colleges (including NWIC)...

WATCHING FOR THE SIGNS

We’ve been noticing the huge impacts of climate change
in intricate ways. The different things we are noticing
around us include the snow-capped mountains. At
one time our elders would predict the following winter...

DIFFERENT WAYS OF LOOKING AT THINGS

Where I come from, the elders are always saying look
at the root causes for anything. It’s fine to see the symptoms
and deal with the symptoms, but you must keep
in mind you are going to address the root causes for
any issue. My elders say it’s reversed in Western society..

PART II. EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS

EFFECTS OF THE CLIMATE CRISIS

The effects of the climate crisis are now being
felt around the world. In the media, we hear
about disastrous effects in remote, unknown
corners of the globe, such as Greenland
or Tuvalu. We also read of dire predictions about the...

Indigenous peoples are rich in traditional knowledge
inherited from the wisdom of tribal ancestors. This
knowledge has guided them through many difficult
episodes in the past when the Earth has brought forth
natural catastrophes. The pulse of life that has sustained...

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE QUILEUTE AND HOH NATIONS OF COASTAL WASHINGTON

The Native peoples living along the Washington state
coast have an intimate connection to the land and ocean
and have adapted to many previous environmental and
social changes, from the receding glaciers of the last ice...

MAORI PERSPECTIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The reality of climate change is slowly dawning on
people, but public debate is largely confined to heralding
the global shifts, potential changes, and in some
instances the somewhat alarming possible impacts on...

IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

It is now undeniable that climate change is occurring
around the world. Scientists have discovered that the
average surface air temperature has risen to its warmest
level in 650,000 years. The rise in temperature has
already affected environments around the world and,...

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON WOMEN’S AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Climate change is not just about global warming, but
about instability in our natural world caused by the
burning of carbon in oil and coal. “Rainfall and freshwater
availability, average temperatures, agricultural
growth zones and sea level all will change. Ecological...

PART III. CURRENT RESPONSES

CURRENT RESPONSES

The current debates around climate change
often seem depressing and overpowering. The
discussion usually centers on the global scale
of “global warming,” and how can one person
or family help protect the entire world? Changing...

INDIGENOUS RESPONSES TO THE INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE FRAMEWORK

For the past decade, Indigenous non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and some Native governments
have been attempting to participate in the international
discussion around the climate crisis and to intervene in
the international climate change regulatory framework....

ON OUR OWN: ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE

If one wants to find the green parts of the world, look
only where the Indigenous people live and there’s a
reason for that. There is a strong motive to duplicate
that, which means relying more heavily on Indigenous
people....

SWINOMISH CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVE

In recognition of a growing body of scientific evidence
and in response to certain specific local events, the
Swinomish Indian Senate issued a proclamation in
2007 directing action to study the possible effects of
climate change on the Swinomish Indian Reservation...

PULLING TOGETHER: HONORABLE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

This is a tribute to two of my teachers—Nilak Butler,
an Inuit warrior woman, brave freedom fighter, friend,
and enduring spirit to many, who taught me to have
a voice; and to subiyay (Bruce Miller), a Skokomish
teacher, healer, and cultural preservationist who taught...

GROUPS PRESS FOR TRIBE-FRIENDLY RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICIES

Washington, DC – As more tribes explore and get
involved in the renewable energy field, a network of
tribal groups is asking President Barack Obama to
support tribally owned and operated renewable energy
projects, along with economic development initiatives...

A METHANE TO THEIR MADNESS

Through manure, an unlikely partnership has
bloomed between Native Americans and farmers in
Snohomish County—a partnership that is shattering a
long-standing impasse through a common cause: harnessing
the “green” power of methane....

Historically, dairy farmers and members of the Tulalip
Tribes in Washington’s Tualco Valley have been at loggerheads.
The farmers are pushing ahead with herd
growth, thus increasing the risk of manure run-off into
the Snohomish River....

PART IV. POSSIBLE PATHS

POSSIBLE PATHS

The climate crisis poses a threat to Indigenous
peoples and also an opportunity. For
decades, forward-looking tribal members
and leaders have tried to protect Native
culture and language, bring back endangered species
and traditional lifeways, and involve youth to practice...

KAUA E MANGERE—DO NOT BE IDLE: Maori Responses in a Time of Climate Change

The word is out—people and communities have begun
to embrace a deeper sense of acceptance and acknowledgement
for the role of human impacts in climate
change. Our debates can at last shift from the analysis
of dramatic increases in atmospheric greenhouse...

POTENTIAL PATHS FOR NATIVE NATIONS

Indigenous peoples share significant experiences as a
result of colonialism, such as the loss of land, natural
resources, and subsistence; the abrogation of treaties;
and the imposition of psychologically and socially
destructive assimilation policies. Non-Indigenous...

Climate change is usually portrayed as a process of
“global warming” that is so large that it can be addressed
only by national governments or international agencies.
We are told that we can only respond to climate
change in a personal way—by changing our light bulbs...

RECOMMENDATIONS TO NATIVE GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP

This section of the anthology is addressed primarily to
the leadership of U.S. tribal nations and to First Nations,
Maori, and other Pacific Rim Indigenous nation leaders.
Through our research and consultations with tribal officials,
we have determined that climate change impacts...

COMMUNITY ORGANIZING BOOKLET ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The 16-page booklet that follows, entitled Northwest
Tribes: Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change, is a
tool for members of Indigenous communities in the
Pacific Northwest, to educate each other about the
challenge that climate change poses to tribal cultures,...

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